Spider web
by Tracy Diane Miller
Summary: What truths does a "shattered mirror" hold? This is a very short story based on a scene from "Fatal Edition".


Spider web  
  
  
  
Summary: What truths does a "shattered mirror" hold? This is a very short story based on a scene from "Fatal Edition".  
  
Disclaimer: Gary Hobson, of course, is not my creation. No copyright infringement intended. No profit is being made.  
  
  
  
  
  
Author: Tracy Diane Miller  
  
E-mail: tdmiller82@hotmail.com  
  
Spider web  
  
  
  
  
  
Gary splashed water on his face perhaps subconsciously hoping that the cold liquid would awaken him from the nightmare that gripped him. If only it were that simple. If only he were dreaming.  
  
  
  
  
  
But the physical and mental exhaustion he felt after having spent last night on the streets of Chicago, with merciless cold brutally tormenting his body and the whispering winds an omen of bad tidings, made him painfully aware that he was living this very real night mare.  
  
He looked up into the mirror studying his own reflection as if it were unfamiliar. The cracked mirror mesmerized him: the design seemed like something intricately constructed akin to an entanglement or snare. An illusion, maybe, but the design appeared to the weary hero turned fugitive to be something more- a spider web.  
  
At that moment, Gary felt as if he were a helpless insect trapped in a spider web, only thing was had the cruel hand of Fate purposely served as the spider to lure him into its web. Had he not been the anointed hero by some nameless, faceless entity that saw fit to entrust him with a futurist newspaper delivered by a mysterious cat? And had he not for nearly five years been a loyal servant accepting the burden of saving people who were often not appreciative of his efforts? Still he pressed forward and did what he could to ensure that the predicted calamities announced in tomorrow's newspaper today wouldn't befall unknowing victims.  
  
Then why was he now being falsely accused of the murder of a man whose life he had tried to save unless Fate had intended for this to happen?  
  
Fate....or The Paper.....the lines blurred in his mind.  
  
Marissa refused to accept his theory that The Paper wanted him to be arrested. Marissa argued that the time reported for Scanlon's murder was wrong because the police had the incorrect information or the guy who wrote the story got it wrong. Marissa didn't believe that The Paper wanted him in jail.  
  
Then why had this all happened? And how did saving Joe, the parking lot attendant, precipitate Scanlon's murder? What missing piece did Joe hold?  
  
Preventing Frank Scanlon from being assaulted should have been simple enough. He should have been able to fade into the background after this save. There should not have been any consequences to his actions which would come back later to haunt him. But Gary had the misfortune of saving a victim who happened to be a tenacious columnist smelling a story, an egomaniac whose insatiable appetite was whetted by the desire to uncover skeletons in his savior's closet. Scanlon didn't see the kindness of a stranger. Instead, he suspected a sinister motive. Scanlon was a "dog with a bone", his powerful teeth clung to Gary Hobson with unwavering fervor and a determination to unmask a psychotic and expose him to the people.  
  
A spider web. First it was Scanlon's web that had caught Gary. Then it was a lie detector test, with its obtrusive wires and loaded questions. The test showed that he was telling the truth about not shooting Scanlon. Yet, other questions which he struggled to answer suggested that he had a propensity for deception. Tighter and tighter he found himself in this spider web. He was strangling in this web, pleading for someone to believe him.  
  
The tangled web of the legal system had its own jargon of "criminal intent", "premeditation", and "reasonable doubt" and lawyers claiming to be champions of justice but who instead worshipped the Almighty dollar with unquestioned devotion. Addison Polk had made it clear that he had little concern for Gary's innocence. Polk was handling Gary's arraignment as a favor to Brigatti,, however Polk expected a fifty thousand dollar retainer if he were to represent Gary at trial.  
  
And what of Brigatti? Polk was a stranger, a lawyer after all, bred to be cynical and suspicious. Sadly, some defense attorneys representing defendants in capital cases often believe that their client is guilty but that doesn't stop them from zealously advocating on the client's behalf even if it means putting a killer back on the street. These attorneys clothe themselves in the Constitution with its right to counsel protection all the while seeking wealthy clients embroiled in legal troubles willing to feed their attorney's bank account to guarantee their freedom. Guilt or innocence didn't enter into the equation. Just money.  
  
But he wasn't a killer. Gary couldn't convince Polk of that, but he shouldn't have had to convince Brigatti. When he came to her townhouse begging for her help, his mud green eyes glazed with desperation and fear, how could she have believed him capable of murder? How could she have looked into his eyes and seen a killer?  
  
The face that stared back at him from the cracked mirror, the spider web, was of a man who was lost and alone, a man who was fighting desperately for his life. The spider web distorted his image; it magnified his fears.  
  
Gary tried convincing himself that once the police tested his gloves and discovered that there was no gunpowder residue on them, they would realize that he never fired that gun. They would realize that he was innocent. In the meantime, he was the only person he could trust and he needed to find the clues to prove his innocence. Gary knew that Marissa must be worried sick about him by now. When he left her in that alley, he could see the fear in her eyes. He wished that there was some way he could contact her, to let her know that he was okay. But Gary knew that the police were watching. He couldn't risk putting Marissa in danger. He couldn't risk being captured and thrown back in jail not when he knew that the police weren't looking for the real killer.  
  
Yet, Gary couldn't shake the feeling that Joe, the parking lot attendant, was the key to all this. And now this new headline with Joe being killed in an apparent drive by shooting when sitting in his station wagon suggested another connection to Scanlon's murder.  
  
Gary started from the men's room until his eye caught another news report about his escape on the television in the diner. He crept out through another exit.  
  
He knew that he had to save Joe, not only to save Joe's life but also because he knew that saving this life was inexplicably linked to saving his own life. Joe was somehow intertwined in this spider web, whether as one of the architects of the web or as a hapless victim, Gary didn't know. But he was determined to find out.  
  
The End 


End file.
